范有寧林宜君 94213543 94213538

The Complementarity of Information Technology Infrastructure and E-Commerce Capability: A Resource-Based Assessmen

t of Their Business Value

范有寧林宜君94213543 94213538

Author

KEVIN ZHU

University of California, Irvine( 爾灣 ).

Ph.D. and MS. from Stanford University

Research: Economic and organizational impacts of information technology, business value of IT in E-business environments, and economics of electronic markets.

Outline

Theoretical Development Methodology Empirical Assessment of the Constructs Hypotheses Testing: Links to Firm Performan

ce Discussions and Implications Conclusions

Theoretical Development(1/9)

Conceptual Framework


E-commerce capability A high-level, multidimensional construct gener

ated from a set of specific variables measuring e-commerce functionalities.

( ＊ Front-end capabilities ) IT infrastructure A composite construct termed IT intensity, whi

ch is based on several levels of an organization’s data processing architecture and networks.

( ＊ In the back office )


Interaction effect A product of the two constructs:

E-commerce capability and IT intensity


Resource-Based Theory on E-Commerce Capability Current State of Knowledge About E-Commerce Business V

alue 1. No single theory can fully explain the business value of ecommerce.(table.1) ＜－motivation 2. Although there is some evidence of economic impacts from IT such as EDI, it is not clear whether this can be directly extended to the Internet-based electronic business. 3. This transformation relies on the capabilities of both front-end customer connectivity and back- end communication infrastructure to reduce the constraints of time and distance on businesses. Prior to the Internet, fir

ms often used stand-alone, proprietary systems (e.g., EDT)


Resource-Based View and E-Commerce Capability

1. Resource-Based View : Viewed from a resource-based perspective, it is how firms leverage their investments in IT and e-commerce to create unique internet-enabled capabilities that determines a firm’s overall e-commerce effectiveness.

Resource-Based View補充 Productivity Paradox( 生產力逆說 )

在八十年代，資訊科技（ information technology ）被認為是改善公司競爭力優勢的關鍵，但這種看法到了九十年代出現了不確定的因素，因為許多實證研究都指出，對 IT 大量投資的公司並未因此得到相對的報酬，這樣的看法也給了許多公司決策者一個很大的難題。

provide competitive advantagesadd value

improves operational performance

reduces costs

increases decision quality, and

enhances service innovation and differentiation.


2. E-commerce capabilities :

are often tightly connected to the

resource base and embedded in the

business processes of the firm. The

degree to which e-commerce is

embedded in, or fitted with, a firm varies

because firms themselves are unique

with respect to their resource endowments.


Complementarity of Resources

Complementarity represents an enhancement of resource value and arises when a resource produces greater returns in the presence of another resource than by itself.


The theoretical discussions above lead us to believe that e-commerce capabilities combine with IT infrastructure and create resource complementarities that explain performance variance across firms.

We have several specific hypotheses exploring the relationships of e-commerce to four dimensions of firm performance (i.e., sales generation, cost reduction, asset return, and inventory turnover).


Hypotheses H1: Greater e-commerce capability, in

conjunction with higher levels of IT intensity, is associated with higher revenue generation.

H2: Greater e-commerce capability, in conjunction with higher levels of IT intensity, is associated with lower costs of operations.

H3: Greater e-commerce capability, in conjunction with higher levels of IT intensity, is associated with higher return on assets.

H4: Greater e-commerce capability, in conjunction with higher levels of IT intensity, is associated with higher inventory turnover.

Methodology(1/10)

Constructs and Measurement Performance Measures

Methodology(2/10)

IT Infrastructure Measures In our study, IT infrastructure is measured in

three levels of computing architecture (mainframes, mini-systems, and end-user computing and networking. )

Methodology(3/10)

IT Infrastructure Measures

Methodology(4/10)

Complementarity of IT Infrastructure and e-commerce capability

Methodology(5/10)

E-COMMERCE CAPABILITY

-Corresponding to the four phases of order life

cycle, E-commerce capability is conceptualized to

consist of four dimensions: information,

transaction, customization, and back-end

integration.

Methodology(6/10)

Information :To provide useful information about the company and its products and services.

Transaction: This includes taking orders on the Web site, tracking the status of the order, and other capabilities that facilitate the synergy between the online and physical channels (e.g., in-store pickup, virtual communities).

Methodology(7/10)

Customization: Internet allows companies to interact with customers more closely and offer personalized information and customized products/services.

back-end integration: E-commerce enables companies to forge( 造 ) tight electronic integration to facilitate coordination, fulfillment, and inventory management in back offices and with external partners.

Methodology(8/10)

Sample Selection: Why Retail Industry?

1. Retail is one of the largest industries in the

United States, measured by both sales

(roughly $500 billion annually) and

employment (over 4 million employees).

2. undergone significant transformations in the

past 20 years with the introduction of

increasingly sophisticated information

technologies. (Ex: point-of-sale scanner )

Methodology(9/10)

3. The retail industry has experienced competition from internet-based e-trailers. (Amazon.com, Buy.com, and eToys.)

4. Many retailers are transforming themselves into net-enhanced ‘clicks-and-mortar’ organizations

Methodology(10/10)

Data Collection

1. A random sample of 31 Web sites was

used for reliability testing.

2. Two groups of the coders analyzed the

full Web sites. The third group reviewed

the Items on which disagreement

occurred, and a majority rule was used to

determine the coding.

Empirical Assessment of the Constructs(1/11) THE THEORETICALLY PROPOSED STRUCTURE OF E-

COMMERCE capability was empirically assessed through a series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) using AMOS 4.0. We followed a multistage approach for assessing the measurement properties to minimize potential confounding issues. We examined the validity of the first-order constructs

representing the four dimensions of e-commerce capability.

We tested the validity of the second-order e-commerce capability construct.

We examined the IT intensity construct.

We put the e-commerce and IT constructs together and tested the overall model.

Empirical Assessment of the Constructs(2/11) E-Commerce Capability: First-Order Factors

Four corresponding factors Information Transaction Customization back-end integration

Validity Reliability

Empirical Assessment of the Constructs(3/11)

Empirical Assessment of the Constructs(4/11) E-Commerce Capability: Second-Order

Construct A second-order factor modeling approach can

capture these correlations and explain them using a higher-order construct that is an integrative latent representation of e-commerce capability, as illustrated in Figure 3.

Previous research notes that this operational perspective represents a theoretically strong basis for capturing complex measures.


Construct

Empirical Assessment of the Constructs(6/11)


Construct

Empirical Assessment of the Constructs(8/11) IT Intensity Construct

Empirical Assessment of the Constructs(9/11) Overall Model Fit

Put the e-commerce and IT constructs together and tested the overall model.

Compare the constructs: average variance extracted (AVE) with the squared correlations (σ2) among constructs, discriminant validity was computed and found to be acceptable (i.e., AVE > σ2), as shown in Table 7.

This provides empirical evidence that e-commerce and IT are two distinct constructs, as conceptualized earlier in the theoretical section.


Table 8 lists several goodness-of-fit statistics to assess how the above-specified model can explain the observed data from three aspects: absolute fit, incremental fit, and model parsimony.

In conclusion, the overall fit statistics, validity, and reliability measures collectively lend substantial support for confirmation of the proposed model.

This also reflects the fact that the items have been pretested and refined over several rounds of data collection.

Hypotheses Testing: Links to Firm Performance(1/8)

The Econometric Model The model specifies the relationship between f

irm performance and a set of variables on e-commerce capability and IT intensity, while controlling for firm size and subindustry effects.

The model includes both main and interaction effects, and suggests that a correlational relationship exists between the DV and the independent variables (IVs).

Hypotheses Testing: Links to Firm Performance(2/8) Control Variables

Some of the cross-sectional variations in performance can be explained only if controls are appropriately applied.

To control for firm size and subindustry effects, we employed three control variables.

Firm’s total assets subindustry effects Prior firm performance, DVt-1

Hypotheses Testing: Links to Firm Performance(3/8) Interaction Effects of IT and E-Commerce

The overall models are statistically significant across all four regressions, as suggested by the adjusted R2 and the p-values.

Interaction effects are found to be significant and positive for Sales/Emp, ROA, and INVX, but negative for COGS/Emp.

This is actually consistent with the theoretical predictions made earlier. IT and e-commerce jointly improve Sales/Emp, ROA, and INVX, but reduce cost of operations (hence, the negative coefficient).

Hypotheses Testing: Links to Firm Performance(4/8) Revenue Generation

To test H1, we regressed sales per employee against the set of independent variables specified in Equation (2).

The adjusted R2 = 0.379 and p-value< 0.001 ，reject the null hypothesis.

Both e-commerce capability and IT intensity were significant and positive. Their interaction effect was positive and statistically significant. Thus H1 is supported.


Cost Measures To test H2, COGS/Emp was regressed in the

model of Equation (2). The adjusted R2= 0.348 (p <0.001) indicates a

reasonably good overall model E-commerce capability was marginally signific

ant with a negative coefficient. A similar result was found for IT intensity.

This result is consistent with the theoretical notions of complementarity.

Hypotheses Testing: Links to Firm Performance(6/8) Return on Assets

To test H3, ROA was used as the DV in the model specified in Equation (2).

The adjusted R2 = 0.361 (p < 0.001) indicates a reasonably good fit of the overall model.

The interaction effect was positive and significant, indicating that the integration of IT and e-commerce is associated with increased return on asset.

In fact, IT investments were often recorded as assets in many companies. More IT assets may not necessarily generate higher operating income; this would lead to a lower ROA.

Hypotheses Testing: Links to Firm Performance(7/8) Inventory Turnover

Using INVX as the dependent variable as proposed in H4, the regression model of Equation (2) was found to be statistically significant, as shown in the last column of Table 9.

E-commerce capability was found to be marginally significant, indicating a positive association of e-commerce capability to INVX.

The result also seems to support the theoretical argument that better information flow along the supply chain can substitute for physical inventory.

Discussions and Implications(1/4) Interpretation of Key Findings

The findings reported above show that e-commerce capability and IT infrastructure exhibit positive relationships to firm performance measures.

Ignoring complementarities in business value measurement implies that the impact of IT could be seriously underestimated.

On the methodology side, this study introduces a higher-order construct to measure e-commerce capabilities.

The results suggest that e-commerce capability can be more parsimoniously represented as a higher-order factor structure than as a set of correlated first-order factors.

Discussions and Implications(2/4) Limitations

Our methodology required tradeoffs that may limit the use of the data and interpretation of the results.

We focus on key limitations here. Our sample size of 114 firms is relatively small.

Because of the small size, we did not use SEM. Our regression results should be viewed with

caution, because regression analysis, although valid as a research methodology, may not give a global picture of the whole situation.

Discussions and Implications(3/4) Implications for Research

These limitations suggest avenues for further research.

E-commerce is a dynamic capability. E-commerce requires firms to build and then

dynamically reconfigure in order to align with changing technology and business environments.

By providing a framework and a set of instruments, this study provides a base for more rigorous test when more extensive data become available.

Discussions and Implications(4/4) Implications for Management

Most firms are now competent in terms of information and transactions, yet the other two dimensions of e-commerce capability - customization and back-end integration - are still the weak links and deserve more efforts.

As shown by empirical evidence, isolated investments may actually increase costs and reduce return on assets; a state of alignment and integration is important.

This is especially timely in an economic climate where managers face heightened pressure to justify e-commerce investments, and IT budget is getting increasingly scrutinized.

Conclusions(1/2)

THE IS LITERATURE HAS NUMEROUS STUDIES about the “productivity paradox”.

Using the resource-based theory to investigate the business value of e-commerce, this study extends the IT business value literature to electronic business environment.

The complementarity of IT infrastructure and e-commerce capability indeed delivers a value proposition reflected upon firms’ performance, which exceeds that of any of these effects individually

Providing empirical evidence of the complementary synergy between IT infrastructure and e-commerce capability.

Conclusions(2/2)

Our results provide a theoretical framework for understanding how e-commerce capability and IT infrastructure may be viewed as complementary resources.

First step: Understanding the complex relationships among electronic business, organizational capabilities, and firm performance.

We hope that these initial results will stimulate others to engage in more research to refine the theory and measurement of e-commerce capability and organizational performance.

Acknowledgments

This research has been supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (IJUCRC) to the Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO) at the University of California, Irvine.

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范有寧林宜君 94213543 94213538